Ever since the United States went to war with the Taliban, the world has had their eyes on one man, Osama bin Laden. The objectives of the war were clear as said by White House spokesperson, Ari Fleischer on November 14th, 2001, “The president will not rest until the objectives are accomplished. And those objectives are the destruction of al Qaeda and the elimination of the Taliban and their ability to harbor terrorists.” In fact Bush himself, on September 16th, 2001, said he wanted Osama bin Laden “dead or alive”. However, the war is Afghanistan has long been over and none of America’s objectives have been complete: Al-Qaeda has not been destroyed, the Taliban has not been eliminated completely and Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be seen. How can the world most powerful nation fail to capture one man? The answer lies in Pakistan.

Bin Laden in the Tora Bora region

Past History
In the past, Pakistan has helped to shelter bin Laden. Bin Laden would have been killed by a missile strike ordered by American president Bill Clinton in 1998. Clinton later admitted, "The best shot we had at him (bin Laden) was when I bombed his training camps in 1998. We just missed him by a matter of hours, maybe even less than an hour." However the real reason that bin Laden escaped was that the U.S. informed Pakistan that it would be striking that terrorist training camp to make sure that the Pakistani's would not mistake it as an Indian nuclear strike. This early warning quickly leaked through to the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, who informed bin Laden, allowing him to escape from danger safely.

Diagram of Bin laden's complex fortress in Tora Bora.

The Escape
One of the last definitive evidence of his location was lost at the Afghan border with Pakistan in December 2001, when a voice believed to be his was last overheard in Tora Bora. After an intensive bombing campaign in Tora Bora, American soldiers failed to find bin Laden after scouring through the vast tunnel network in the region. They could only assume bin Laden had been killed without or a trace or he had sneaked over the nearby Pakistan border.

In late 2001 they got their answer: combined U.S. military and intelligence operatives in Afghanistan searched the mountainous regions of western Pakistan, where they had picked up a pattern of phone communication between bin Laden and friends. Most intelligence analysts think bin Laden is still holed up in Pakistan’s treacherous border zone. Personal couriers riding on motorcycles and buses apparently pass messages from bin Laden in the tribal areas to al-Qaida’s hideouts in Pakistani cities like Peshawar and Karachi.

In fact local tribals have testified that they had seen bin Laden in the area recently: One such tribal, Abu Jaffar had stayed in Tora Bora, for one night, after his foot was blown off by a stray cluster bomb. He had stepped on the bomb after exiting his family's cave amid heavy bombing to look for injured persons. Jaffar said that after Osama left 10 days ago, he contacted us inside Tora Bora to tell us that he was sending his own son to be with us there. Osama’s son, Salah Uddin, traveled through Paktia province with 30 Arabs and 50 Afghan fighters. Jaffar also says that for two weeks, scores, if not hundreds, of Arabs have been safely spirited out of the Tora Bora camp. He says that some senior members in the current Jalalabad government are aware of the Al Qaeda members' movements, and that the journeys have been paved with hard cash. Most of the Arabs escaping to safety are women children and old people. Wounded soldiers and some young men have also been permitted by bin Laden's son to leave the embattled base.

Map detailing bin Laden's suspected whereabouts in Pakistan

In addition, Citing Pakistani intelligence sources, on January 29th, 2002, CBS reported that the suspected mastermind of the terrorist attacks was secretly spirited into a military hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan for treatment with the help of the Pakistani military. On that night they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them," the report quoted an unidentified Pakistani medical worker as saying. Another hospital employee said that at the time of the procedure, he did not know who the patient was. "Since that time, I have seen many pictures of the man. He is the man we know as Osama bin Laden," the second employee was quoted as saying. "I also heard two army officers talking to each other. They were saying that Osama bin Laden had to be watched carefully and looked after."

Dead End
Even if bin Laden is in Pakistan, why can’t the United States catch him? Other than small insufficient Special Forces teams, the Pakistani government has not allowed US troops to enter the country. The Northwest Frontier Provinces in Pakistan are an autonomous region that is loosely governed by the federal government. In addition, the locals are fiercely loyal to the Taliban and bin Laden. Therefore, Pakistan fears that the region may secede if they allow U.S. troops to capture bin Laden. In addition, because the United States cannot scour for him, they instead provide military aid to Pakistani military to find bin Laden. And instead of using the money for to search for bin Laden, Pakistan gladly uses the money to arm Pakistani militants to send into Kashmir.

Links
News Center: Bin Laden in Pakistan

Christian Science Monitor: Bin Laden in Pakistan

CNN.com: Bin Laden in Pakistan

Tribal Leader: Bin Laden in Pakistan

Washington Times: Bin Laden in Pakistan

The Week: Osama in Kashmir